Gerry Studds -- first openly gay congressman

New York Times

Published
4:00 am PDT, Sunday, October 15, 2006

** FILE ** This is a January 1995 file photo of U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006 at Boston Medical Center, a hospital official said. He was 69. (AP Photo/Tory Wesnofske) less

** FILE ** This is a January 1995 file photo of U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006 at Boston Medical Center, a hospital ... more

Photo: TORY WESNOFSKE

Photo: TORY WESNOFSKE

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** FILE ** This is a January 1995 file photo of U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006 at Boston Medical Center, a hospital official said. He was 69. (AP Photo/Tory Wesnofske) less

** FILE ** This is a January 1995 file photo of U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006 at Boston Medical Center, a hospital ... more

Photo: TORY WESNOFSKE

Gerry Studds -- first openly gay congressman

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Gerry Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress and a demanding advocate for New England fishermen and for gay rights, died early Saturday at Boston University Medical Center, his husband said.

The cause was a vascular illness that led him to collapse while walking his dog Oct. 3 in Boston. Mr. Studds was 69.

From 1973 to 1997, Mr. Studds represented the Massachusetts district where he grew up, covering Cape Cod and the barnacled old fishing towns near the coast. He was the first Democrat to win the district in 50 years, and over the course of 12 terms, he sponsored several laws that helped protect local fisheries and create national parks along the Massachusetts shore.

A former foreign service officer with degrees from Yale, he was also a leading critic of President Ronald Reagan's clandestine support of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He staunchly opposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, which Studds once described as "the Edsel of the 1980s" -- overpriced and oversold.

His homosexuality was revealed through scandal. In 1983, he was censured by the House of Representatives for having had an affair 10 years earlier with a 17-year-old congressional page. For Mr. Studds, formal and dignified, a model of old New England reserve, the discovery sparked intense anguish, friends said.

Once outed, however, Mr. Studds refused to buckle to conservative pressure to resign. "All members of Congress are in need of humbling experiences from time to time," he said at the time.

But he never apologized. He defended the relationship as consensual and condemned the investigation, saying it had invaded his privacy.

He went on to win re-election in 1984, surprising both supporters and opponents. Mr. Studds also seemed emboldened by his re-election, demanding more money for AIDS research and treatment.

And in addition to speaking on the House floor on behalf of same-sex marriage, he set an example. In 2004, he and his longtime partner, Dean Hara, became one of the first couples to marry under a Massachusetts law allowing same-sex marriage.

Mr. Studds' past had recently resurfaced. In the final two weeks of his life, the two-decade-old controversy surrounding him became an issue in the 2006 midterm election campaign as a new congressional page scandal unfolded.

Though his name had barely been mentioned in Washington since he retired, the resignation late last month of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., revived interest in Mr. Studds' dalliance with a teenage page in 1983.